~ pulling together the brighter pieces ~

Quick, before it’s gone!

This past Sunday, Amo & I spent a couple of hours at the Blanton Museum of Art to catch the last day of some exhibitions recommended by friends.

Reimagining space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York was a lively assemblage of paintings and sculptures created to capture the spirit of the urban industrial landscape the artists were working in and inspired by at the time.

Geometrically-shaped canvases painted with electric colors and machine-perfect lines and patterns parlayed perspective, dimension, and depth, a visual reflection of jazz, modern architecture, the Space Age, and an interest in the fourth dimension.

My favorite pieces in the exhibit were by sculptor Mark di Suvero: reclaimed materials from demolition projects such as steel beams, chains, pipes, and broken pieces of wooden framing and furniture were soldered and bolted together into wonderfully dynamic kinetic pieces that called to me like the playscapes in the parks of my youth. Dang that “No touching” policy in the gallery. I was also delighted to learn that the big orange sculpture I’ve been gawking at lately (part of a series of sculptures loaned to UT by the Met and scattered around campus) is one of di Suvero’s.

The New York Graphic Workshop: 1964 – 1970 exhibition presented the conceptual work of a small group of printmakers seeking to explore and redefine the practice of printmaking. Holy moly I love art that challenges tradition! Especially traditional ideas about what art is, what it can or can’t be. Good mental exercise. Repeat daily.

This group sent little mini-exhibitions through the mail, and created interactive installations for viewers to walk through and participate in. They even invented a fictitious character and then made and sold prints attributed to him to benefit a Latin American scholarship fund at Pratt. Ingenious!.

The Park Place and NYGW artists were admirably dedicated to establishing and working in collaborative, cooperative spaces, independent of commercial galleries & dealers. I think there are several small cooperative arts groups here in Austin – I’ll have to go a-hunting now, and report back later.